1. Field of the Invention
The present invention related to the field of electronic publishing, and more particularly, a tool for the creation of graphically based customizable collateral materials such as advertisements, brochures, signs, door hangers, etc. and anything needing localization from an online, master inventory of supplied elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
By way of example, the present invention is described in reference to advertising and the requirements between a manufacturer and its distribution channel. However, any publishing requirements established by any entity such as franchisers, distributors, insurance companies, mutual fund companies and each of the respective agents can take advantage of the present invention.
In the field of print advertising, there are specific channels through which merchants produce advertisements. Typically, a merchant or a dealer who wishes to create a particular print advertisement turns to Co Op Ad books supplied by the manufacturers. In these Co Op Ad books, manufacturers provide pre-approved company logos, trademarks, graphics, and other relevant promotional materials to be used in advertising campaigns, local ads, and other print media. The manufacturers may participate in the advertising costs and collateral printing costs. As a result, manufacturers experience significant costs in maintaining the materials supplied to the merchants or dealers and exert very little control in how the materials are utilized. Overall, this type of marketing program is expensive to maintain and update, difficult to use by the merchants or dealers, and difficult for the manufacturers to monitor compliance by the merchants or dealers. Furthermore, once the proper layout of the advertisement has been completed, there exists the difficult task of getting the hard copy to the printers for publishing.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to develop an online channel to facilitate content providers in making available all advertising graphics, materials and layouts that meet their specification and/or rule-set. With such a system, merchants or dealers on one side would have much easier access to advertising materials provided by the manufacturers on the other side. In addition, the completed layout of the advertisements could easily be transferred electronically to the publishers for printing. This would allow more efficient application of advertising materials than ever before.